I talked to Seattle SuperSonics general manager Sam Presti about the state of his team at the midpoint of the season for today's story. The full text of the conversation is provided below. In short, Presti said that obviously the team doesn't have as many wins as they would like but that it's all part of the process teams go through in rebuilding a franchise into a winner.

The Oklahoman had a interesting story on financing NBA stadiums and how cities go about public financing.

The Sacramento Bee contrasts the arena situation in Sacramento with the process here in Seattle.

Is there another Shawn Kemp in the NBA's future? Shawn Kemp, Jr. has turned heads in the Atlanta area and is making his way through the college recruiting circuit. Check it out here.

Here's the Presti interview.

Q: At the midpoint of the season, what are your overall thoughts on where you see the team right now? And can you talk a little bit individually about how Kevin Durant and Jeff Green have progressed.

A: Obviously we’d like to have more wins than we have right now. But we understood that going into the year with a lot of new faces there was going to be some peaks and valleys.

And we certainly enjoyed some successes and improvements in December. Right now we’ve had a little bit of slippage, and we need to get our group again reestablished on doing the things that helped us gain that momentum that we had in December.

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Q: But overall you feel like the team in moving forward on the basic principals that the franchise has put forward – playing hard, playing defense, sharing the ball and holding the team accountable?

A: When you’re going through periods where you are struggling a little bit, that’s when you really find out what it is that you stand on. And we’ve got to continue to work on those things each day. As players, coaches and management we’re all accountable to the product that we put out on the floor as it pertains to the vision that we have for the team.

Q: Can you talk about Durant. December seemed like a pretty good month for him, but January he has kind of taken a step back a little bit. Do you think he’s hit the rookie wall, or is this just the development process he’s going through?

A: I think with every rookie that goes through the league there are going to be stretches of great success, and there’s going to be stretches where there are some struggles. Kevin and Jeff are not different. There’s going to be stretches where they are getting better and breaking new ground. And there’s going to be some nights where they struggle a little bit.

I think how they respond to those things and how they work through and learn will mean a lot, not only to them individually but to our team. Our expectation for them is that they continue to put in great effort, accept coaching and work to make the team better.

Q: How do you feel P.J. has managed everything so far?

A: Being a head coach in the NBA is a tough job. And I think P.J. has definitely done a good job of emphasizing the defensive end of the floor, and emphasizing the fact that we want our teams to play hard and play together. Being consistent with those things will be a very important factor to how we improve as a team

Q: What would you like to see in the second half of the season?

A: We need continued improvement in the areas we feel are important to our team. We want to continue to have a defensive system to build on. We want our group to compete every single night. And our focus is really on getting better each day, and trying to build on our successes and learn from our experiences in the games where we might struggle.

Q: And the losing streaks themselves, what do you take from that? Is it just a cycle that you’re going through?

A: Certainly it’s not easy when you’re going through tough stretches like we’re going through. But it really does force us to come together and hone in on the things that are important to our team, and to what is going to allow us to work our way out of some of those tough stretches.

I think our players as a group are a competitive group. We’ve got good guys in the locker room, and their effort and their professionalism as they go to work each day is certainly going to be important as we work through this. I feel really good about the way our guys come together and play hard. Our coaches work hard in preparing. And ultimately it’s about the collective effort of everyone involved.

It’s a process. Teams that are transitioning and growing go through some tough stretches. Portland is a good example of a team that has gone through a phase and come together recently, and on down the line. Teams like Cleveland and Toronto have worked hard at defining an identity and pushed through incremental gains so that they could achieve success.